Branch
by Frantic Author
Summary: Blake Thorburn finally got what he always wanted - a vacation. Unfortunately, his visit of a long-lost family member resurrects a long-dead conflict.
1. Blood 1,1

POV will switch between Blake/Taylor from chapter to chapter.

**Blood 1.1**

* * *

_"Hey Ems? Do you think we'll be friends forever?"_

_"Sure, I promise."_

* * *

_"Grandmother will... Will it hurt?"_

_"Of course not, I promise."_

_They lied._

* * *

It was dark. It was always dark in here. A blackness so overwhelming and complete that looking into it was like looking into the void. I couldn't see anything, could barely move, could barely _breathe_ in this all-encompassing dark. I reached out a hand shakily, before wrenching it back. I didn't know where Ur was, in this darkness, and I couldn't see-

Flame, light piercing through the darkness so bright it made me shut my eyes-

A piercing cry that I couldn't understand-

_"Blake!"_

My eyes snapped open, and I jolted at the lull of the buss, moving softly through the rain. It splattered against the windows, leaving long running lines down the glass that I couldn't see through the blur. A flicker of a blonde face appeared in the window, splotched and stretched, but I still smiled at it. She looked at me with worry, putting a hand up against the glass.

"Bad dreams, Blake?" she asked quietly. Her blonde hair was fraying at the edges, and her eyes had deep dark circles underneath them. The clothes she wore were outdated by twenty, maybe thirty years - something that my mom or grandmother would have worn when they were younger. Long, flowing dresses with sleeves to cover the arms and a neck high enough to hide the bruises. "About… what happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Rose," I said in response, trying to squint past her to see anything in the rainstorm outside. It was absolutely _pouring _out there; even worse than when I'd fought the Eye. Rain rushed so loud that it outweighed even the low hum of the bus. "They're just dreams."

"They're never _just _dreams, Blake," Rose said as her eyes narrowed. A raindrop cut her picture in two, and I had to go cross-eyed to follow her as she bounced around the raindrops in an attempt to get a clearer picture of me. "Not in what we do. Especially not when they make you take off like that."

"Take off? Rose, it's a _vacation. _We've earned one, and nobody in Jacob's Bell is going to fuck with us for at least a goddamn week. I've made sure of that."

Rose wasn't wrong. I was one hundred percent running away. I'd felt choked and thin before Ur's death, and leaving Canada had only made me feel more relaxed than ever before. I don't know how big my cash-in must have been, but Isadora had felt enough goodwill towards me to give me a freebie on how to 'postpone my death', so it must have been _pretty fucking sizable. _I sank into the chair a bit deeper, smiling slightly as I saw Rose's worried face in a hundred different small rain drops. She frowned at me, turning into a full portrait once more, and placed her hand on the glass. I put my hand on top of hers, and she bit her lip.

"I… I don't know what to _do _Blake. I was already going crazy. This… won't this just make it worse?"

It could, and I'd promised Rose I'd make sure she'd be free. I sighed, pulling a crumpled letter out of my pocket. It was old and frayed, the address barely legible and the name hard to read. Rose looked at it, raising an eyebrow.

"So?" she said it like a woman with a gun pointed at my head. Her arms crossed over her chest as her eyebrow went up, a stray strand of blonde hair falling in front of her eyes. "What's one of grandmother's old letters have to do with us?"

"That's the thing Rose, this letter _isn't _that old. I think…" I looked down at the letter, rubbing the charred edges of the envelope. "I think grandmother tried to burn it and then regretted it. It's from one of her daughters."

"What's it say?"

I shrugged my shoulders, pulling it out and holding it in front of her face. The bus was empty except for a few people, and at most I'd just be called crazy, or a weird cape. Pretty standard. Rose's eyes flicked across the letter rapidly, and she let out a low whistle.

"_Damn. _I'd burn that letter too. She renounced the family entirely? Forsook her offspring's claim, for good or for ill? Swore to never see Grandmother again as long as she lived?"

I nodded, reading over the letter again. It was brief, but to the point - Annette Rose Thorburn renounced her claims to the House, her claims to the magical line of the Thorburns, and the name Thorburn itself. It wasn't exactly clever, but it was clearly written by a girl who had been crying as she'd done so. I already admired Annette, even if she must have been middle-aged by now; she'd done something that nobody except me had ever done to the Thorburns.

She'd left.

The rain grew louder and louder, roaring furiously as it hurled itself at the bus, hammering it over and over. I could hear the angry muttering of the bus driver, and I shut it out as I looked inwards, breathing deeply. My eyes closed, and then I Opened them once more, staring at the connections attached to the letter. There were only a few; one of the ribbons an old, dark shade of black, the sort that can only be accumulated over a long time. It softly drifted in a non existent wind, with nothing attached to it. I knew intuitively that it was probably the one belonging to grandmother, and I loved Annette all the more for it. I mean, of course I did.

_Everyone _hated Grandmother.

Reading further through the letter, she'd given an address, her cordial invitation to any Thorburn who could find the courage to come all the way out to a _cape _town, and signed it "my everlasting hatred to you, Annette". God, what a _woman. _She certainly sounded like a practitioner, with the way she picked three statements, and the precise statements they _had been. _I'd really needed a teacher for a while now, and now more than ever. The stuff Rose and I had been getting into was… not dark, but definitely on the blacker side of gray.

"Blake! Psst, Blake! Blake!"

I looked into the hood of my jacket. Tucked away was a small sparrow, with brown wings and bright eyes. Rose glared at him in the window, holding a finger up to her lips, but he ignored her.

"Blake, now that I can like, create stuff, what if I _created fire _so that way I could be a bird of fi-"

"No, Evan," Rose said bluntly, crossing her arms. Evan wilted, burrowing deep into my hood, and Rose gave me a _look. _I sighed, patting Evan on the head with my hand. "You cannot become a bird of fire. And don't refer to power of Fate as 'creating stuff'."

Evan's feathers bristled and he made a huffing sound out of his beak. Rose's eyes narrowed, a strand of blonde hair falling in front of her face as she pulled herself upwards, opening her mouth to say something truly vicious. I ignored them, focusing on the ribbons as they chattered back and forth.

Aside from the ribbon belonging to grandmother, there was only one other strand of _real _interest. Well, two really - but they were so innately entwined they might as well have been one. A red strand twisted so close to one that sparkled in the light, the white flickering and dancing through the air as it wrapped itself around the red, heading off into the distance. I focused on it, trying to follow the strand to its natural conclusion, but my concentration was shattered when the bus came to an abrupt halt. My eyes snapped Closed again, Rose and Evan quieting down as the bus driver stood up slowly, walking back through the bus.

He was a hulk of a man, easily six feet tall, and shoulders wider than some football players I'd seen. I took in deep breaths as I watched him walk through the relatively empty bus, stopping in the middle of it.

"Can't drive through this weather," he said with a sigh, scratching the black hairs of his beard. "Too much wind and rain. Sorry for the inconvenience, but you'll all have to get off here."

There was a round of moans and general complaints, but I stood up, flicking open the mirror I had on a necklace to let Rose move about. The rainstorm _raged _outside the bus, and stepping out into it nearly blew me off my feet. I paused for a moment to steady myself, and Opened my eyes again.

The entwined ribbons that had twisted together as they extended from the letter were the most important ones. It was the most vibrant, most fresh, and had the feeling of a _real _connection to it. I could probably follow it to something that mattered - either to Annette, or to something she had cared about at the time of writing the letter. Either way, it'd be easy enough to follow it to find her.

"Blake," Rose said softly as I walked through the rain, holding a hand over my face so I could actually see. The wind whipped around me even faster and more violently, like I was going against the elements themselves. "You need to find a place to sleep tonight. We can't sleep on the streets."

"Annette probably will have a place for us," I replied to her. "Unless you think she'll turn _family _away."

"Didn't she run _away _from her family?" Evan asked, sticking his head out of the hood of my jacket. The rain splattered against him, and he spluttered, shaking his feathers to get out most of the water. "Plfft! The letter didn't seem too nice to them, Blake."

I didn't answer him, because I didn't want to think about it. I knew that chances were slim but… Annette had _left _the family. Even I hadn't had enough spine to fully excommunicate myself from the fucked-up situation that our family lived in, but Annette hadn't had any problem with it. I wanted to believe that there was at least _one _member of the Thorburns who wasn't a total asshole.

The storm raged around me as I followed the strands, only pausing when we stopped outside of a graveyard. Looking at the ribbons, a chill ran down my spine as I saw where they went.

"I don't like this, Blake," Rose muttered, as she looked up at me from the reflection in a pool the rain had formed. "This isn't just a normal place. There's power here."

I could feel it as I stepped into the graveyard. The hum and twist as I exited a normal place and entered a demesne; this was _someone else's _realm. Not mine. Not the city's. Not even this fucking world's. It was a place that belonged to someone packing some serious fucking firepower, and all I had was Evan and an old letter.

Maybe this was a bad idea.

The rain attacked me like a flock of birds. Even with my hand over my face, I could feel it pelting me as I followed the ribbon, seeing the way it was tangled together as it looped lazily around several gravestones and went forward. My feet felt like I had chains of steel attached to them, but this was the _only lead. _I had to follow it to the end, right?

Even if it hurt, I couldn't stop here - I was so close. I could feel the ribbon shortening as I followed it down, stopping up and peering through the endless storm as I neared the end.

It stopped in front of a tree.

The tree was tall - taller than most trees you see in cities. It had long, thick branches and a dark coloration; closer to ash than to pine. Leaves with fall colors decorated the tree, a fiery mixture of orange and red that clashed violently against the cool greens towards the center. As I finally stepped underneath it, my teeth let out a hiss of breath I hadn't known I was holding in. Finally, for a moment, I was at peace.

"You came."

A voice echoed out, and I _turned, _my hand automatically reaching to my back where I'd wrapped the Hyena up. As my fingers closed around the hilt, I looked around, zeroing in on the voice quickly. It was a girl, with long dark hair and a pair of fashionable glasses on the brim of her nose. She looked up at me, and her eyes were large and wide, with massive brown pupils in the center. She smiled, and it was a dark and grim thing that crossed over her face, as she slowly stood up from her crouched position in front of a grave. Lightning roared through the air, and I saw the name.

Annette Rose Hebert.

My heart twisted at the thought that the only member of our family who had run from them was dead. But I kept looking at the girl, as she began to speak.

"With this, I state my claim. With three representatives of the Thorburn clan here, I state my claim."

"_Blake,_" Rose hissed from my chest, and my hand tightened around the Hyena, a snarl growing on my face as I felt the fight for domination rush through my existence. The Hyena wanted to rip, to tear, but I wouldn't let it. A wave of power rushed through my hand into the hilt, and I felt the spikes start to twist and move their way in between my fingers, instead of inside of them. "What the fuck is she doing?"

"My prior self," the girl intoned, like she was reading from one of grandmother's books. "Who once was Taylor Anne Hebert, I forsake. I leave the name of Hebert to the dead and the damned beneath us, as I stake this claim."

Oh _seven fucking choirs, _no.

"Rose," I said, as Evan began to climb out of my hoodie and hopped onto my shoulder. "I think she's trying to-"

"If there are those who would deny me, state your cases," the girl said. I prepared to move, but a red-haired girl _slammed _into me with so much force I felt my bones crack. I struggled, unsheathing the Hyena as I smashed it into the side of her skull, feeling the blood run down my fingers as the girl's eyes turned towards me, and _opened. _Gold, a brilliant shining gold exploded from her eyes like light from the sun. I threw her off me, shielding my eyes, and heard the other girl - Taylor, continue. "For I care not for who I once was, only who I am."

She looked at me.

"My name is Taylor Annette Thorburn," she said, taking the knife she had held in her hand and running it delicately across her wrist. The blood dripped across Annette's grave, covering her name. "I am the granddaughter of Rose Thorburn. By claim of blood, I state this as fact. In front of these three representatives, I request acceptance into their bloodline, one already close to mine."

I opened my mouth to shout my denial, but a hand covered me. The red-headed thing was in front of me again, her lips set in a firm line as her eyes glowed golden. I could feel the power behind her, and the one that rested inside of my soul _stirred, _slowly uncoiling itself as it stood up. Red ran through my body like a _pulse_, and I could feel Conquest's energy coursing through my veins. I smiled dangerously at the redhead, grabbing her arm with my free hand, and my eyes danced as it burned. Evan's beak opened, and a _shriek _rang through the air as he called hail, sending it towards the girl on top of my back, carving through her clothes as she hissed in pain.

But she didn't let go.

"I forsake my previous name, and claim my new one!" Taylor shouted, as the storm whirled in rage around her. She continued, like she was trying to rage against the heavens themselves. "I leave it to the dead, and state my name once more! I am Taylor Annette Thorburn! I am the youngest granddaughter of Rose Thorburn! I am kin to the Thorburn Heir! _You will recognize my claim!_"

And the world _twisted, _and I finally clenched ash in my hand as the redhead's arm vanished, and stood up, Evan already clawing his way out of my hood and flying towards Taylor, his beak open to yell a word -

And I saw her name change. The connections she had to Hebert died, and new ones were forged in their place. Even as my eyes glanced down, I saw Annette's gravestone change, history itself changing to a prewritten path.

I looked up at the girl, growling. The redhead moved in front of her protectively, the place where I'd turned her arm to ash roaring in golden light. Taylor's face changed before my eyes, shifting from those long, angular lines that formed her jaw into one more like Rose's, or Molly's, or even grandmother's must have been when she was young. Her hair stayed dark, but seemed almost _darker _from the wetness of the storm. She smiled shakily at the redhead, grabbing her from behind and pulling her close.

"Th-thanks Ems," she said, as she took a deep breath, her head hidden in the crook of Ems' neck. "B-but I have to try to get them on our side, right?"

Ems frowned, brushing red hair out of her eyes as she tilted Taylor's chin upwards and looked her in the eyes.

"Are you sure, Taylor?" Ems asked, biting her lip. Her eyes flicked between my new cousin and us. "I know you wanted them here for a reason, but-"

"_Wanted _us here?" I asked. "I came here on vacation."

"My fault," Taylor admitted, blushing a bit. "Paid for an augur to alter the lines of fate. Made sure you would come here."

Who the _fuck _were these people?

"But fucking _why? _To become a fucking Thorburn? Why the fuck would you want to be part of _this _family?"

Her eyes hardened, and she turned away from me, looking out through the rain. I could only see flashes of lights, glimpses at what was just beyond my vision. But she looked like she could see so much more.

"Did you know? Brockton's a unique case. We haven't had a Lord in over sixteen years. Since Marquise died, our lordship has been left empty."

She looked back at me, and thunder roared behind her. Ems stood protectively in front of the girl, and Evan flittered about, debating if he should use his own magic to strike first. My heart sank as I heard her speaking, my brain already putting the pieces into place.

"When mom died, she… she said in the will that she'd had a plan for me. One more than twenty years in the making. She said that _I _should claim the Lordship. Either without incident, or…"

The girl's eyes _raged_, a storm hidden inside them as she clenched her fingers around the knife in her hand. Her mouth curled upwards into a twisted snarl, and Ems gave her a worried look, gently touching her shoulder. Taylor growled in response, stamping her foot.

"By rite of _fucking conquest_."

My mouth ripped itself into a smile without me wanting it to. I wiped my face clean, ignoring Rose's worried look out of a puddle nearby. Evan landed on my shoulder, and I carefully rewrapped Hyena as I looked at the girl.

Well one thing was for fucking sure.

My vacation was _not _going as planned.


	2. Blood 1,2

**Blood 1.2**

* * *

I walked calmly with Ems at my side, hearing the trailing duo of the Thorburn heir and his bird behind me. The rain came down like sheets of ice instead of simple water, drenching my clothes so fiercely that they clung to my skin. Even _breathing _in this downpour was hard for me, every time my lips opened, my mouth was filled with more water than I could have imagined. I gagged on some as it poured down, and a lightning strike in the distance sent the smell of burning wood to my nose.

"Where exactly," the Thorburn heir asked me, and I turned my head over my shoulder to look at him. His blonde hair was thick with water, and he ran a hand through it, streaks of rain rushing down his eyes as he did so. "Are we going?"

"My house, obviously," I replied, rolling my eyes. For someone with so much power, the new heir had no idea how to use it. My fingers mindlessly fiddled with my necklace, feeling the golden coin in the center. Like always, it felt like ice. "That's where mom kept all of her notes."

"How are you even going to get inside?" he questioned again, arching an eyebrow. "Didn't you just toss aside your name to be a Thorburn?"

God, he really _was _an idiot. As if my mother had taught me inside of our own house. Dad wasn't anywhere near trustworthy enough to be let into our secrets. It wasn't that I hated him or anything, it was just… he was always so _busy, _with his work, and everything, he barely had even noticed that Emma had stopped coming over after mom's death. He hadn't even noticed when Ems had started showing up, either.

"Mom set up an apartment," I said instead. I didn't want to give away any of my truths for free. "I'll be staying there until I take the lordship."

I turned away from him, ignoring the Thorburn heir's frown growing on his face. He was… different, than I was expecting. Everyone who was _anyone_ in our world knew the name _Thorburn_, and anyone important knew what the Thorburn heir had done.

Defeating an Incarnation.

Binding an abstract demon.

And, if I was even a little bit right on this guess - and with Ems on my side, it's doubtful I would be _wrong _\- he had absorbed the Incarnation into himself. Having that kind of power on my side… it made me a bit giddy. Thank god for family connections. Ems moved closer to me as I thought, reaching out a hand that I gratefully took with a smile. She'd always been close to me before, but since I'd tied her to _Loyalty…_

Our relationship had been redefined a little bit.

"I'm Blake."

I turned around again, looking at him. The Thorburn heir scratched the back of his head with a tight smile on his face, extending a hand to me. I was honestly a bit surprised - I'd never been good with connections, or with glamour. My magic was more about the… _immediacy _of an effect, rather than something slow and insidious like a connection. I didn't think I'd done anything to convince him at all; not even the augur I'd contacted to get him here could make something like _this _happen.

"Taylor," I said in response, smiling slightly. Ems' grip on my hand tightened just a bit, and I squeezed it back in reassurance. A window cracked as we passed it, the line cutting the girl in the reflection in half. "It's nice to meet you, Blake."

We walked in silence for a bit, the storm raging around us. I felt the world _twist _as we exited my mother's old demesne, and I looked mournfully at it for a second before tearing my eyes away from the graveyard. I didn't want to think about how mom had died any longer. I had too much to do.

"Tay," Ems' whispered, her words filled with worry and love. Her form had twisted again, losing all coherency as she shattered into a golden mist that enveloped me like a cloak. "Are you _sure _this is okay? I don't think Annette would have wanted us to do _anything _like this."

It still hurt a bit, hearing Emma's voice coming from my familiar. I knew, intellectually, that Loyalty and Emma _were _one and the same, but it was hard to divorce my feelings towards the girl who had betrayed me with the girl who unconditionally supported me.

"It's _fine_, Ems," I said with a smile, reaching a hand up to the mist. Her face morphed into form before my eyes, and I gently caressed her cheek as she looked at me with wide, worried eyes. "Look at him for a second, okay?"

She did, her eyes vanishing into the golden light as her consciousness _expanded. _If I tried, I could have inserted myself into her eyes, and seen the way she did, but the last time I tried that…

Well, let's just say that bleeding out of your eyes and speaking in tongues is _not _conducive to making your familiar not worry about you.

While Ems looked at Blake, I opened my own eyes, glancing furtively at the knife my mother had left for me. It had been her implement, something so simple and elegant as it was. The handle was wrapped in leather, with the tip of a rose engraved in the silver at the bottom. It had an ordinary crossguard, one that rested comfortably just above my thumb and index finger when I curled my hand around it. The blade itself was long and lithe, with jagged edges to catch other weapons inside of it. It was a swordbreaker, a metalcutter, and above all else, something my mother had loved dearly. It made me feel closer to her, when I held it, but every time I did a shiver went down my spine.

An implement in the form of a weapon didn't have the nicest connotations. That massive sword Blake carried on his back… it was lethally dangerous. Even looking at it made my skin start to crawl, the handle that was covered in spikes so sharp they must have stabbed him every time he grabbed at the blade. But he'd made them _move _out of the way of his hand, asserting dominance even over a sword that wants to kill the owner. Blake was fucking scary.

Really, _really_, fucking scary.

Ems reappeared by my side, nodding hesitantly at me as she grabbed my hand again. I smiled gently at her, and her form twisted around me, her free hand raising up as golden light _streamed _from it, catching the torrential downpour above us inside of it. I could feel my skin start to warm, a numbing sort of tingling running through my body as Ems' began to exude heat.

"Mind if I cut in?" Blake asked, as he ducked underneath Ems' umbrella. I frowned at him, and Ems' eyes flashed with an emotion I didn't know, but neither of us said anything. Blake rubbed his arms, shivering a bit as the bird in his hood popped out, flying upwards and landing on his head. "It's freezing out here."

I nodded tentatively, but didn't say anything else as we walked, moving through the docks towards the apartment that my mother had prepared for me. A stop sign bent itself over as I passed by it, and I cringed at the sight. I needed Blake for more reasons than _just _firepower after all.

The docks were empty and barren of anyone, a blank page in a blank book. Nobody ever came here, not even the Merchants with their half-assed practice and half-assed capes. The wind and rain was louder than people here; not that there were any around us. I could hear the murmur of moans coming from beneath the ground, but that was pretty common around here. The ABB had left this place to the dead and the damned, and the Merchants were more deadened and damned than anyone else.

Hell, if I hadn't known any better, I'd call _them _diabolists.

"This is dangerous stuff you're messing with," Blake said, scratching the back of his neck. The wind howled around us even as he spoke, but his words reached me anyways. I tightened my grip around Loyalty's - Ems' - hand and tried to ignore it. "You can't be more than what? Fifteen?"

"And a _half,_" I snapped back, cringing a little bit at myself. He was getting to me, even though I had been so crazily patient with his bullshit. A light in a nearby lamp-post shattered. "I'm not some kid fucking around, Blake. I've been practicing for most of my life."

He frowned at me, and I turned away, Ems' umbrella still covering us. It was uncomfortable, honestly. I know I'd fucked him over a _bit,_ but he was acting like I'd tanked his karma. We were _Thorburns_, we never came out ahead in the first place.

"Still…" he muttered, sending a dark look towards the ground. I could hear the groans of the dead and dying echo through the docks, even with the storm still raging. The Merchants had either heightened their recruitment, or they were increasing their patrols again. "I wouldn't want anyone I knew mixed up in this. I'd keep them out so they could be happy."

Happiness? For a practitioner?

Jesus _Christ_, he was naive. I smiled at him and didn't say a word, as Ems bit her lip. The ghosts and ghouls that the Merchants had under their control or in contracts howled louder and louder, until she finally rolled her eyes, her other hand vanishing into golden flecks as well. The air shimmered, and her face slowly vanished, more and more light replacing it until it was like a beacon. I wasn't worried, but I could tell Blake was. I put a hand on his shoulder, and he jolted away from me, his arm immediately going for his sword.

"_Don't_," he hissed, his eyes narrowing. Power rolled off him in _waves, _and my knees shook at how much force Blake seemed to have inside of him. The bird on his head flew around him in worry, and he sighed, relaxing his stance. "Sorry, I just…"

"No, it's alright," I said with a fake smile. "I didn't realize you didn't like to be touched. My mistake."

He rolled his eyes, and we continued our movement. Blake's eyes darted left and right, watching in fascination as we walked past the ghosts without being noticed, and I threw him a bone.

"It's because of Ems."

"Ems?"

I nodded, leaning back on my heels. The girl in his mirror stared at me with suspicion, but I ignored it. She wasn't really important, after all. The Thorburn heir was the one in front of me, not the one trapped away.

"Yeah. She was really good at connections, before…"

I bit my lip. I couldn't lie, but I didn't want to tell the truth. If the truth was a weapon wielded by the speaker, then what happened to Emma… that was too dangerous to just _let _them know about. Ems tapped me on the shoulder, and I blinked, peering ahead before my lips broke into a smile.

"We're here," I said, coming to a stop in front of an old building. The sign in front of it had been tattered and worn by time, but at one point it must have been a mechanic's shop. The windows were boarded up and closed, and a massive chain-link lock covered the door. "This is it."

"It seems…" Blake said slowly, like he was trying to be polite. "Nice?"

"It looks _terrible_, Blake," the girl in the mirror groaned. Her blonde hair was tied back in what should have been an immaculate ponytail, but she'd given up halfway through. Her hair was frazzled and sticking out, and her eyes were sunken even in the mirror. "This is even worse than your apartment."

"Don't badmouth my apartment in front of Evan, Rose. It's a nice place."

"Maybe for a murder investigation. It's not good for the practice."

"Not _everything _has to be about the fucking _practice_, Rose," he said, his eyes narrowing. "It's quaint here. I would have appreciated it when I was-"

He stopped, looking at me. I tried to seem as innocent as possible, but that had always been more Ems' thing then mine. It didn't really work when blood ran down half my arm, and I was holding a dagger.

"-When I ran away," he finished, his shoulders sagging. I smiled brightly at him, but it seemed to make him fall deeper into despondency. I looked at Ems for help, but she just shrugged her shoulders as one of her hands dropped the umbrella, and it began to twist and shift, even as the rain poured on our heads again. I felt cold, wet, and _hungry_. I hadn't eaten in a few days, because I'd been so busy preparing. Mom's demesne was dangerous, even for me. She'd left in some terrifying defenses that I had to try my best not to trip with my ritual, and Blake's arrival here was going to let me start to _finally _throw around some weight. I didn't want him to run off on me. "My family wasn't the best. I had hoped, coming here that…"

Oh.

My smiled died a bit.

"...Yeah," I said quietly as Ems finger formed the key and she began fiddling with the lock. "Me too."

Mom and Ems had seen an end to that particular dream. My grip on my familiar's hand grew tighter, and she smiled softly at me as she opened the door. Inside the air was clean and crisp, and I entered quickly, grabbing a dusty towel off a ratty old chair as I ran it through my air. The space was old, filled with old books and older promises. My mother had been deeply invested in the Bay's scene, but some of her deals were _scary. _That black book she kept was one I was keeping locked away for a very, very long time. I didn't even want _Ems _to know about it, let alone _Blake. _As I tapped my foot on the floor, it gave way, cracking a little bit until I moved my foot off of it.

"See Rose?" Blake said as he stretched, grabbing the towel I handed him and wiping off his face. The bird that followed him flew into the towel itself, fluffing its feathers proudly when it finally had its fill. "Not such a bad place after all."

I looked at the mirror around his neck, and paled. Rose was missing. Fuck. If she had gotten into anything-

"Yeah it's nice," the blonde girl said, and my eyes whipped around to find her in a covered mirror by the window. The old white drape was so thin it might as well have been sheer, and if I squinted I could see behind it. She was holding one of my mother's books, flicking through the pages absently. I couldn't read the title, but I knew the look of the book - and when I cross-checked it against the library itself it was _still there. _My skin was starting to tingle as I looked at the two of them. Blake had come here because of what fate said, but Rose wasn't in the equation. Maybe this would be easier than I thought. "I'd prefer the house, though."

"Rose _forget_ about the house," Blake moaned, sagging into an armchair that Ems and I used to cuddle up in to read for mom's homework. The red velvet of the upholstery sank into his wet clothes, as his bird flicked about randomly through the lower portion of the house. "Evan! Don't touch that, it could be dangerous."

"Awww, c'mon Blake! It's just a _knife, _I can hold a knife and not do anything dangerous!"

I turned around, and blushed. Blake's bird had found some of mine and Ems' earlier experiments. A knife that grew brighter and brighter the closer you were to danger. A compass that pointed you towards enemies. The only meaningful one was the map she and I had made, already pinned up to the wall - on it were immediate family members and close friends, tracking their positions across the city. I peered at it, sighing in relief as I saw the cluster of Thorburns at Rosie's Rides. It looked like my ritual _had _worked, I was Thorburn in every way that mattered. Except when it came to inheritance. I didn't get any of that.

But I did get Blake and Rose, so I figured that I had traded up.

"Tay!" Ems said, as she jammed her head through the wall like it wasn't even there. I tried not to jolt, and succeeded. "Is it okay for them to move around like that? What if they mess something-"

"We're older than either of you," Rose said bluntly, sitting in a chair in the long mirror by the window. The bird - who must be Evan - flew over to it, struggling to pick up the long drape that thinly veiled the mirror, letting out a small noise of triumph as it finally fell to the floor. Blake sighed. "We've been in enough danger to know what not to touch."

"Still, Taylor and I have been working really hard on this, so-"

"We're here to be your brute force. But Blake and I are pretty clever on our own, too. Don't underestimate us."

I couldn't see Ems face as she looked at Rose, crossing her arms as she appeared on this side of the wall, her body shimmering like liquid light as she formed herself in front of me. Rose smiled back at her from inside of the mirror. I was really pleased with what Blake and Rose had already shown, so far. They'd be a _great _fit for my opening move.

"What's the plan, Rose?" Evan asked, landing on top of her mirror. "See, I've got this _great _idea. You know how Taylor's familiar is made of light? Get this: I could be made of fi-"

"Evan, _no._"

I laughed a little at Evan, a smile growing on my face. I didn't know a bird could _beam _at someone, but Evan did - flying excitedly over to me and landing on the top of my head with pride. I peered up at him, as he fluffed his feathers up, and let out a grousing sound at Rose.

"See! Taylor already gets it, Blake! I bet she's got a _great _plan!"

I smiled a little bit at Evan, ignoring Blake's questioning glance. It was nice for someone to have a little faith in me. Even Ems was… well, she was loyal, I guess. I knew she believed in me, but she _always _believed in me. It wasn't the same thing, even if I loved Ems to the core of my being. I knew it as well as I knew myself. So I wasn't surprised when golden light gently plucked the bird off of my head and deposited it on Blake's shoulder. Blake looked at me, and I looked at him. He scratched his chin.

"So," he said. "What's your plan?"

"It's pretty simple actually," I said brightly, pointing at the map. On it, slowly but surely, blotches of territory began to fill themselves out. "We just have to kill all of my enemies."

Rose's eyes flashed with an emotion I couldn't detect, and she arched an eyebrow at me.

"Oh?" she said, her voice light in spite of the heavy topic. "Do you have a demesne?"

I shook my head.

"An implement, perhaps?"

I shook my head again.

"A familiar?"

"I'm not _that _dumb," I rolled my eyes, and Ems laughed. "Ems is my familiar."

"How does that work, exactly?"

"Well, Ems was-" my eyes narrowed and I looked at her. Her eyes smiled at me, and I had to fight one off my face. "Oh, you're _good. _I almost gave that away for free."

"Yes, I'm a bit sad it didn't work," Rose said with a sigh. "Still, I suppose this is as good a point to begin with as any."

She smiled, and I felt like a fish before a shark. I reached up shakily to touch the coin on my neck to my cheek, feeling the roaring waves underneath it. Ems wrapped herself around me, but in spite of everything, I still felt cold. I looked at Rose, and could feel the withering pages of a book nearby.

"So," Rose said with a smile, as Blake frowned at her. "Shall we start the negotiations?"


	3. Blood 1,3

**Blood 1.3**

* * *

"I'll be setting up meetings soon," Taylor said as she sat down in an old armchair. Dust fell from the ancient upholstery, and I could see tattered fabric start to fall as she rested an arm on it, the other propping up her chin. Her features had changed frighteningly fast, her fingers long and lithe and the look on her face reminded me way too much of Molly. "I'd like it if the two of you could deal with some of the more… undesirable elements of Brockton."

"Undesirable elements usually have dangerous undertones," Rose replied, crossing her arms in the mirror. I'd removed the sheet from it to give her a better view, but she was already getting comfortable. A mirror of the chair that Taylor was in had appeared in her world, and Rose was flicking through one of Annette's books idly as she spoke, leaning against the arm of the chair. "What kind of undesirables are you referring to? I don't know much about the going-ons of your city."

"The usual, of course," the younger girl replied. She had two knives, one that I had already seen and the other was a simple thing, with a black handle and short blade. There was no crossguard, and she lazily spun it in her free hand while her fingers tapped her cheek. The other was jammed into her belt - a swordbreaker. Neither had connotations that made me really excited to be here. "The Merchants, mainly. Necromancers disgust me."

"Disgust you? Care to share?"

"Not particularly, no. Unless _you'd _care to share how you defeated Ur."

Rose smiled in the mirror, and it made my skin crawl to look at. I was never a big fan of the doublespeak and half-truths that everyone in this world seemed to fucking _revel _in, but Rose adored them. It was easier to let her deal with this than it was to do it myself, but her methods sometimes…

I looked away from the two, and saw Ems walking through a wall, vanishing. I nudged Evan with a finger, and he blinked once, ruffling his feathers as he popped up out of my hood.

"Blake? Yeah? Are we doing something?"

"I'm thinking about following Ems," I whispered to Evan. "Do you think Rose can handle herself with Taylor?"

Evan gave me a blank look.

"I mean, do you think she'll be in any danger?"

Evan continued to stare at me like I was the bird and he was the human.

"Okay, I'm just saying, if something _does _happen, do you think Rose can handle herself?"

"Blake, are you just asking me to see if _I _want to stay here or follow her? Because I'm already getting bored."

I nodded, and quietly ducked out of the door.

The building was _old. _Through the door was wallpaper that probably used to be white at some point, but had paled to a sickly yellow. Strands of it were peeling off the walls, revealing rotting gray bark behind it. Every step I took was loud, too loud - the wood was obnoxiously creaking as I left the living room behind and entered the kitchen. Ems was standing by the sink, which let out droplets of water every couple of seconds. Her legs crossed behind her as she stared out the window, fingers tapping against her cheek in a way eerily similar to what Taylor was doing so few feet away. It reminded me that this wasn't just two teenage girls, this was a practitioner and her familiar. They were picking things up from each other, like how I had picked things up from Evan. I shifted uncomfortably as I walked, pulling out a chair from the dining table and sitting down in it. Ems' eyes followed me as I did, and she let out an aggrieved sigh.

"Shouldn't you be back there? With your friend?"

"She can handle herself," I said, finally shrugging the Hyena off my back and putting it down. I stretched my shoulders, feeling the aches and pains from the day leave as I finally relaxed. Evan flew out of my hood, flapping around aimlessly for a moment before he landed on the chandelier above the table, and I watched it nervously as it creaked when his feet touched it. "I'm not that worried about her. Shouldn't you be worried about Taylor?"

"Like you said, she can handle herself," Ems replied, looking away towards the window. The rain still poured outside, coming down in large drops of water that splattered against the window. The paint on the wood was worn and old too - peeling away and flecked with age. This house was ancient, more ancient then it showed outside. I didn't know how they were keeping it together by themselves. "She's not _weak_, Blake Thorburn."

I flinched as she said it, my shoulders sagging. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a book with a black clover, flicking it open. Ems' eyes shot to me as I did, and she raised an eyebrow.

"Black Lamb's Blood? Not really helping your case, are you? I thought you didn't _like _demons. That's what Tay said when she was researching you."

"I'm not interesting enough to be researched," I replied, flipping a page. An elaborate circle of binding lay before me, and notes sprawled in the margins explained the usage. "But this isn't a book on summoning demons."

"It's a diabolist text, Blake. Aunt Annette told us about all the ones she saw in her mother's library."

"Not every diabolist text is for _summoning_," I said with more emphasis, snapping my implement shut as I looked up at her. "Some are for binding, some are to explain the choirs, and some are for summoning. This is a mix of the first two."

I put the book back in my pocket. Ems watched me carefully as I did, and I sighed, scratching the back of my head.

"Look," I said slowly, staring into her eyes. "I don't give a fuck what Taylor and Rose decide back there. They can go through all the bullshit, argue over semantics, and try to needle information out of each other all they want."

Ems' lips twitched. I counted it as a win.

"But if I didn't want to be here, I could have just _left. _Even if your bitch of a master decided to fuck up her own karma, it probably wouldn't effect _mine. _I didn't ask her to join the family. I just wasn't allowed to say no."

"She's not a _bitch," _Ems said and her eyes narrowed. "She's way more clever than me. Without her I…"

She gnashed her teeth, looking away. Her thumbnail flicked against the back of her teeth, and Evan winced at the sound.

"That's bad for you! My mom always told me that if I kept doing it, I was gonna break my fingernail, and then I would swallow it and choke!"

She stopped, looking at Evan with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"And if you do that, bugs'll fly in!"

Her mouth snapped shut, and her lips twitched again.

"Hey Evan," I said, leaning back in the chair and propping my feet up on the table. Ems watched me, and rolled her eyes instead of saying anything. I crossed my arms behind my head, and heard the dark chuckle of Hyena as it tried to sneakily cut the leg off the chair. "Can you stop our friend down there?"

Evan nodded, flying below my chair and dragging Hyena away from it. The sword let out a petulant whine that made me want to roll my eyes.

"So," I said, looking at her. "What's it like?"

"What's what like?"

"Being a familiar."

She paused, thinking it over. Flecks of light sprawled over her red hair, making it look like a spiderweb was crawling over it. Her lips pursed as she stood still by the sink, looking out the window.

"I don't know really," she finally said, the words slowly leaving her lips. "I don't think much about it. What's it like being a diabolist?"

"I don't think much about it."

"See? It's like _that. _One day you're one thing, and the next you're something else. I remember one second of searing pain, and then woke up with Taylor hugging me covered in blood. I could already feel the connection, so I knew what had happened."

She shrugged, stretching her arms and jutting her chest forward. She turned to me as she stretched, walking out of the kitchen and putting her leg up on one of the chairs as she arched her back.

"Your mirror buddy isn't going to fuck her over, right?"

"I don't think so, no."

She smiled, bright and wide. It was startling, really - just like that, she went from serious to chipper in a heartbeat.

"Good. I'm going to go have a chat with an Other. He gets pissed when you mess around without his permission. Wanna come?"

I looked at Evan. Evan nodded rapidly, feathers bristling in excitement. I sighed.

"Sure, yeah. Let's go."

Ems nodded, abruptly standing straight and walking back to the room with Taylor and Rose. I followed her, their murmur of conversation growing louder.

"-ink I'll really take a deal like that? Wouldn't I just be giving up a lot in exchange for nothing?"

Taylor's voice entered my hearing as I walked into the room. She was still sitting in that old, ratty chair, raising an eyebrow at Rose in the mirror. She reached up to a coin around her neck, fiddling with it.

"Not nothing, exactly," Rose said as I walked through. She arched an eyebrow at me, and I jerked a hand towards Ems, and motioned walking. She rolled her eyes, looking back at Taylor. "You'd be gaining two extremely powerful allies and a resource in exchange for a few lessons. Is that really so bad?"

"Isn't he supposed to be a Lord or something himself? I just think this is stuff he should _know. _And I'm sure you want to know about _my _practice too."

I really missed sarcasm sometimes.

"Ems and I are leaving," I said, and Taylor jolted a bit, her hand clenching around her coin as she turned to look at us. Ems was already by the door, pulling on a jacket. "She says there's some Others we have to speak to before we do anything serious."

Taylor paled, her eyes flicking towards Ems, who mouthed something at her I couldn't decipher from my view. The girl visibly relaxed, sagging into her chair in relief.

"Y-yes! Of course! You two go do that, and we'll discuss terms here."

"Indeed," Rose said with a smile like a cat that just saw a particularly vulnerable mouse. "I don't think it'll trouble either of us at all."

The fucking doublespeak really got on my nerves. I left with Ems.

We walked in silence as Ems weaved an umbrella over our heads, the rain bouncing off it like a ball in the mitt of a clumsy catcher. I couldn't see anyone else out in this storm, but there was so much wind and rain that it was hard to _breathe_, let alone see anyone. Evan tried his best to see for me, his small body twisting wildly in the air to try to go a bit further - but it was too much. He had to come back shortly after, shivering and dripping all over as he dove into the corner of my hood.

"Why do you even want to help her?" Ems asked me, crossing her arms. She'd even paused in our walk to look at me. "She's manipulated you. She's trying to do something impossible. What's the point?"

What _was_ the point? Ems was right, really. Taylor wasn't trying to be a good person, or even trying to help anyone but herself. She was exactly like everyone in Jacob's Bell in a way; all she cared about was her own gains from the suffering of others.

"It seemed like a hopeless case," I said, shrugging. Evan let out a small giggle at it, and I glared at him. "I've seen so many fucking _hopeless_ cases since I've become a practitioner. And I've never been able to do a goddamn thing about it."

The people that Ur killed, so dead that we can't even remember them.

The fucking _house_.

Fucking _Conquest_.

I was sick of it. I was sick of the rules, of the lies, of everything that came with being in the practice. I didn't like any of it. I didn't like how everyone treated each other. It was rotten. I pulled out my implement, flipping through it with narrowed eyes.

"I guess I just wanted to see one of them _mean_ something for once."

She let out a bark of laughter in response, turning away from me. The wind and rain rolled off her umbrella of light like shattered glass of a window.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "I get that."

The silence returned, but it was more comfortable this time. A calmer silence, with a quieter reasoning behind it. I followed Ems through the darkness, waiting for her to tell me where we were going. She didn't say a word for a long time, and Evan flittered around the umbrella rapidly, his wings flapping at a ridiculous speed. He stopped in front of her for a moment, peering into her eyes, and Ems looked at him in confusion. I sighed.

"Evan!" I said with a bit more force than necessary. "Knock it off. Don't distract our guide."

"But Blaaaaaake," Evan groaned, moving in front of my eyes. Ems continued walking, and I moved to follow her, brushing Evan a bit to the left of me. "I'm _bored! _It's ruining my creativity!"

"Do you _need _to be creative right now?" I asked him with an arched eyebrow. Hyena chuckled darkly on my back. "There's nobody around to attack us, Evan. It'll be fine. Just relax for a bit."

Evan grumbled something I couldn't understand, and we kept walking. The tight corners grew wider, and the oppressive atmosphere of this place lifted itself off of us, making me breathe a sigh of relief. Ems paused, glancing forward with a sigh.

"Damn," she said quietly. "It won't be happy with us."

"It?"

She jerked a hand towards the police station. It seemed almost foreboding, making my skin crawl as I looked at it. I opened my eyes, and nearly let out a hiss.

It was _bright. _Light shone from every corner of the station, and thousands of strands connected to it. The police station had been built on the center of every ley line in the fucking city it looked like, and a tower rose from it - shining marble and angelic light that flowed from every corner of the building. It stretched higher than I could see, but at the top, the light _raged_, an intense and burning thing that shone like the sun itself.

"Virtue," she said bluntly. "Come on, we've got negotiations of our own to do."

I followed her to the entrance of the station, and an Other awaited us there. It had taken the shape of a dog, but the skin was rotting away from it, bones on display as it raised its head to look at us, before nodding, pointing its nose towards a platform that had just appeared. Ems stepped on it first, and I followed.

The platform rose quietly, a soft hum the only sound it made. I watched with apprehension as we rose higher and higher, with no guardrails of any kind until we were almost at the clouds.

"This safe?"

"Safe as can be when you're meeting an _angel, _Blake."

_Seven fucking choirs._

"Couldn't have mentioned that earlier, could you?" I asked, looking at the girl. "Didn't want me to back out?"

"Nah, I didn't think it was relevant," she said, arching an eyebrow as she looked at me. "I only wanted you along because you've got way better karma than Tay."

That was… fair, I guess. Even if it didn't make any sense. My karma was supposed to be _deep _in the red. I hadn't checked it since taking Conquest, but… what had changed?

What had changed so much that my karma had nearly completely _reversed?_

The platform slowed to a halt, and we stepped off it. I put a hand over my eyes as the light roared, so piercing that I had to shut them, and I could still see the flare on the inside of my eyelids, until it suddenly died and I squinted out.

In front of me was a man.

Or a woman.

In front of us was a person of indeterminate gender, sitting in a small chair next to a golden throne. The throne towered over us - and them, as well - their back would have barely come up halfway across the massive thing, and they smiled politely at us as we moved forward.

"Ah, Ems!" The being said, smiling wide. It stood, stretching its arms out as long brown hair flowed off its back. "And who is this? I have never seen him before."

"Presenting Blake Thorburn," Ems said, dropping into a sharp bow, her arms crossed - one over her chest and one behind her back. "And his familiar, Evan. Relative of Taylor Annette Thorburn."

The being's eyes flashed white, and its smile grew slightly.

"My, _my,_" It said, a single finger tracing a lazy line across the arm of the throne. It leaned against one arm, fingers dancing across its cheek. "How very curious. I've heard that the Thorburns are bad luck, you know. Why do you present them to me?"

Ems took a deep breath.

"Taylor desires to press a claim."

"For what? The Docks? She already has them," it said, waving a hand. A small creature scurried forward with a glass of wine, which the being took in its free hand, fingers still dancing across its face. It lazily moved the glass in a circle, the red rippling inside of it. "For Winslow? That was yours before it was hers, Ems. And we both know that there is none with any sense who would dare to test themselves against the abomination or the Dragon."

"For the Lordship."

The glass shattered in its hand. It stood up, white flaring from it as it took a step, and the pressure almost forced me to my _knees _\- this was an angel, alright. I could feel the authority that it wielded pressing down on me, but Conquest _raged _back, and red crackled over my body like lightning, forcing my back ramrod straight.

"You do remember who I am, do you not, Ems?"

"Muraqib Rshiqa," she said quietly. "I am aware."

"And you do know what I was put here for, do you not?"

"To prevent any and all from disrupting the balance."

Muraqib Rshiqa smiled, a beautiful thing that slowly warped its face with happiness, but the power remained. The authority remained.

"And what, exactly, allows Taylor Annette Thorburn to press such a claim?"

Ems looked upwards at the being, a smirk dancing across her face.

"The plan of Annette Rose Hebert."

The authority vanished, and I gasped for air as Muraqib Rshiqa reseated itself, a lazy smile once more on its face.

"Of course! Why didn't you just say so? Naturally, Annette's plan is acceptable to me," Muraqib Rshiqa said, waggling a finger at Ems. "You should have lead with that, Ems. Not with everything else."

"Y-yeah," she said, slightly off-put by Muraqib Rshiqa's sudden change. "My mistake."

"So Annette is finally making her move, is she? Ahhh, I remember when she came to me first with that plan of hers," the angel said with a smile, crossing its legs on its throne. "It was glorious then, but with your harbinger of a master? Why, I think I might have to revise my opinion of it to _spectacular. _Of course, a gift is expected, is it not?"

It looked at me and Evan, raising an eyebrow. Ems smile grew even wider.

"Naturally," she said, bowing as she extended her hands towards us, her palms spread out. "Muraqib Rshiqa, I would like to introduce you to the newest entrants into Brockton's games. Taylor's gift to you, is the gift of a new student for an old teacher."

"Oh?" Muraqib Rshiqa said, leaning forward. Its eyes danced. "Whatever do you mean?"

Ems' smile grew dangerous. I had a sinking feeling in my gut.

"Tell me, Muraqib Rshiqa, when was the last time you saw a Law mage?"

And when Muraqib Rshiqa's smile shone like the sun, I knew I was truly, and thoroughly, _fucked._


	4. Blood 1,4

**-o-**

**Blood 1.4**

**-o-**

I had always hated the rain. As it rattled down the outside of the garage that was Mom's old hideaway, it made me shiver a bit, and my hand reached up to grip the coin around my neck, feeling the cold sensations that it sent through my body. Rose smiled indulgently at me through the mirror, crossing her legs as she sat in a comfortable armchair that had been pulled into it - the same as the one I was sitting it, fiddling with my knife. I took a deep breath before speaking, and looked at her directly.

"I'm already fulfilling my side of the bargain," I said to her, and she arched an eyebrow, motioning for me to continue. "Ems is taking Blake to someone who can teach him how to be a practitioner. That's what you wanted, right? Muraqib Rshiqa's tutalage in exchange for your aid."

"That was in exchange for _Blake's _aid," the woman said. I held in a curse as she did, realizing the trap she'd laid for me. "I'm not Blake Thorburn, am I?"

She wasn't the Thorburn Heir, no. She was a woman in a mirror who Blake listened to _entirely _too closely. I didn't know what she wanted from my cousin, but my gut said it wasn't anything good. I didn't know much about her at all; she hadn't featured heavily in any of the information I'd been able to acquire on the Heir at all. It made my skin crawl just looking at her, though - where Blake had this weird calming effect, she was all rage and wrath.

"No," I said eventually. "You're not. What do you want, then?"

"Getting out of this mirror for a start," she said with a smile, flicking the pages of a book. "But I doubt you can help much with that, can you?"

"I could research it. Look into what's keeping you there."

"Ah, but Blake and I already did that," she said. Her finger waggled back and forth as she lifted it to turn a page in her book, and her smile grew sickly sweet. "What could you possibly add?"

"I have books."

"So does Grandmother, and she has _far _more books then you do. If I couldn't uncover a solution, merely more questions, what help are you?"

"I have power."

She gave me a pitying look, and I bristled, glaring at her. I took a deep breath, fiddling with the knife in my hands more. I didn't want to be baited into giving away anything she didn't already know, and Rose was _clearly _way better at these games then I was. I wasn't a shitty apprentice or anything, but compared to her…

Christ, it was like she _lived _for this.

"Have you ever summoned a demon, Taylor?"

"No," I said. The word left my mouth breathlessly as I looked at Rose inside of her mirror. She was smiling indulgently at me, holding a diabolist text that I recognized - _Black Lamb's Blood_. My mother had once let me read it when I'd asked for a primer in diabolism, but only if I promised to read it, but not to use it. "I haven't."

"Would you like to?"

I didn't move at that. Her smile grew wider, like the cat that caught the canary. It felt like knives were dancing across my skin, as I walked the very thin line between dealing with a diabolist and dealing with a devil.

"That's not a _no, _Taylor Annette Thorburn," Rose said quietly. She looked down to the book, flipping another page. "That's a bit dangerous, isn't it? Blake wouldn't be pleased with you."

"Isn't he a diabolist?" I asked her, arching an eyebrow. I stood up, crossing my arms in front of my chest, my hand still gripping desperately to my knife. "He's dealt with demons more than I ever have."

She snapped her book shut, placing it on her lap as she smiled at me. I could feel my skin crawl everytime she did, but was it with excitement, or danger? Rose was fucking _terrifying_, and not in the way Blake was. Blake had power, but Rose had _finesse. _She'd weave webs so tight and thick that I wouldn't be able to see a way out in the time it would take me to cast a spell.

"Blake and I are… different, I suppose," she said. A finger brushed her lips, the paleness of her skin contrasting with the brilliant red. "I'm worried about him. He wants to do so much _good, _but he doesn't want to play the game."

"And you do?"

"I'm rather good at them, wouldn't you say?"

I nodded, reluctantly, my shoulders slumping. Rose was outmaneuvering me in this talk all over the place. I couldn't think of a way out of her word games without admitting my own flaws and ability. I could hear the creaking of the wood as the rain splattered against it, and inside this dusty room it was so hard for me to _think. _On the desk by the window, I could hear a lightbulb crack, and Rose smiled indulgently at me.

"You're a lot like Blake, I think," She said. Her voice was quiet and soft, and my heart _ached _for mom. "You two would get along if you set aside your differences, wouldn't you?"

I hoped that was true.

I really needed allies, of any kind. People who could help me in times of danger would _really _fucking set me up for success. But Rose… God, if she just dropped the _bullshit_ she'd be so helpful to me.

I just had to convince her to do so.

"We're family, aren't we? He'll help me anyways."

She nodded at that, sighing as she opened the book on her lap once more. I could only catch fragments of the pages as she turned them, but the designs on them were sinister and dangerous. Why was she reading it so closely, anyways? What was so important about _Black Lamb's Blood _that she was devouring it like that?

"You remind me of someone from my past," Rose said. Her eyes glanced up at me from the book, and her fingers brushed her cheek as she leaned against the side of the chair. "So I've decided to help you."

My heart hammered in my chest.

"R-really?"

"Yes, _really_," she said admonishingly. My cheeks flushed and her smile was soft and warm as she looked at me. "Enunciate properly, Taylor. A practitioner can never be uncertain, a diabolist even less so."

"I'm not a diabolist."

Her eyes flickered down to the coin at my neck. I covered it with my hand.

"With _that _thing in there..." she said, her nose wrinkling in disgust. I felt a spark of shame rush through my body, but ignored it. "You're closer to one then most."

I felt ashamed. I didn't know why, but the way Rose spoke reminded me _so fucking much _of mom that it hurt. Was it on purpose? Was she _trying _to mess with me this way? I couldn't believe it, but it _was _possible - Ems had done it to me before.

Before…

Before what happened.

"And don't bother with all those terribly trite apologies that I know you're building up right now," Rose said as she turned a page in her book. I looked at her, and her eyes didn't meet mine as she gazed at the pages of _Black Lamb's Blood._ "We both know they're meaningless, because you wanted something more than you had. Did you succeed at taking it?"

I had.

I had more power in my little finger then some people here had in their entire body. As a practitioner, I had achieved so fucking _much _\- I had territory, I had a familiar, I even had a workshop given to me by my teacher. So…

So why did I feel so _miserable _about it?

A chain rattled on the door, and a shiver ran down my spine. Rose sighed, closing her book as she stood up from her mirrored chair. She looked at the door with a wrinkled nose, arching an eyebrow at me.

"I-I'm not expecting anyone," I said to her. "Do you want me to check?"

"If you must," she replied. Her body left my vision in the mirror, and her voice echoed from the hallway - she'd entered a mirror by the door. "Do you have many enemies, Taylor?"

I didn't. I wasn't important in the grand scheme of things, until now. I was the student of a woman who had high hopes, but low abilities. Not only that, I had no way to stand up to some of the more dangerous factions in the Bay; people like the Dragon of Kyushu, or even the Merchants' necromancers. But it was different now. I'd been holding back. I'd just wanted some allies before I'd stopped.

I had them now.

This wasn't a small squabble over territory, anymore. This was the start of my reign over Brockton Bay. I smiled at Rose as I walked through the hallway, and she gave me one of her own. As I reached for the handle, her voice called out from behind me.

"Oh, and Taylor…"

I turned to look at her, and that small smile turned incredibly vicious. Red wreathed itself around her head like a halo, her hair raising in a non existent wind as her eyes _roared _with power, the kind of power that Blake had grabbed at to fight against Ems.

"Make sure they _know _who you are. Thorburns don't roll over for people as worthless as _necromancers._"

I nodded.

I opened the door, and in front of me was a ghastly thing - not really human, but not entirely inhuman either. It had the shape of a man, with all the correct parts for _humanoid _appearance. A loincloth was fastened around its waist, and long, strong legs poured out of it. The chest of a human man stood far above my own head, and I had to look upwards to see its face and head - the head of a raven. Small black eyes peeked downwards at me, and it let out a warbling croak as I looked at it. In its hand was a staff, long and lean that it had gripped closely.

"Nobody has died, psychopomp," I said to it. "This isn't Merchant territory, either. Go back to your master."

The raven squawked at me in response. I could feel bits of spit slap into my face, the rain howling outside as it did. A lamppost turned in on itself as the spit dripped down my face, and my eyes narrowed as I looked up at it.

"This _is _Merchant territory, girl. As the masters of death, we control the places with the most death inside of them. Adam demands tribute, and you have ignored it for too many moons."

"The Docks belong to the monster," I said in response. It blinked at me, head turning rapidly as if it expected to see the monstrosity that the Docks had crafted out of the corner of its eyes. "Is Adam making a play?"

"The Merchant of Death has no need to make 'a play' for the Docks, girl," it said. "He _owns _the Docks already. You have been overstepping your bounds."

Bounds, bounds bounds. I've felt shackled for _so long, _waiting and planning. I'm sick of it. The rules that confine this city to their whims, what good are they anyways? None of them stopped my mom from dying. None of them stopped whatever fucked up shit New Wave did to that abomination they call a daughter. Even the Dragon doesn't bother himself with the docks. Mom's death made this place open season?

What a joke.

It doesn't belong to anyone else.

It's _**mine.**_

"Tell Adam to back off," I said. The crow looked at me in annoyance, and I could feel the hairs on my arms start to rise. "Or I'll _make _him back off."

"You have no allies, no weapon, no familiar," the psychopomp with the raven head said to me, its beak clacking mechanically. "What threat are you?"

I sighed.

"Aren't you afraid?" I asked it. A sharp stab of pain hit me as I broke the skin of my index finger with my thumbnail. Droplets of blood started to drip out, and I swiped it across the coin on my neck. A dark chuckle echoed in my mind, and an inky blackness began to spread across my fingers, a void so thick and deep that it was like looking at the sky on a moonless night. It ran down my hand, slowly creeping up my arm. "Of those that go bump in the night?"

"Hardly," it scoffed. "You are not the abomination. You are not the war mage. You are not even the augur. What could you possibly do?"

I smiled, bright and wide at it as the void enclosed over my head, my teeth becoming sharper and more pointed inside of it, my eyes hollowing themselves out to an empty white.

"Not much," I said in answer. "But you should probably be scared of me."

The psychopomp's head twisted as it peered at me, and the monster in the coin _roared_.

Like knives, my teeth expanded out of my face. I could feel my skin peel off as the monster that my mother had left me began to exit out of the coin, its aura already encroaching on reality with every step I took. Windows shattered. Lights broke. Mom had never really given a damn what others thought, and now?

Now, these bastards were going to fucking _fear_ what she'd given me.

"Harbinger," the raven hissed as feathers swirled around its staff. It took a step back, as my arm shattered, cracking in a dozen sections while my fingers grew longer, nails ripping themselves off to be replaced with ones stronger than steel. "Step back."

I didn't.

My arm tore through the air towards its head, the psychopomp barely managing to avoid it as it continued to backpedal down the path. My shoulders broke through the door, and I stood up, looking the raven directly in the eyes. Saliva dripped down my jaw, and I let out a howl as my storm spread. The rain grew harsher, the mist deeper, and I vanished it.

"So that is where it got off to," the psychopomp muttered to itself. It began floating in the air, the staff glowing brightly as the raven took a step onto the air like it was a set of stairs. "Adam had been wondering where the monster of the docks had been. When did you make a claim, harbinger?"

I didn't answer. Or rather, I _couldn't _answer - it was already a battle in my psyche with the Docks Monster every time I tried to use its form, or assume its powers. My storm was growing rapidly, a swirl of despair that entrenched itself into the very ground I walked on. I took another step, and the concrete under my feet shattered, breaking into a million pieces as I did. The raven's eyes narrowed at me, its beak somehow frowning as I looked at it. There was a breath of silence as we stared at each other.

Then I tore the lamppost out of the ground and threw it at the bastard.

A burst of darkness emerged from his staff, enveloping the light - it was the kind of void so dark that it ate light itself, banishing it into non-existence. Even in this form, I had a bit of trepidation - my teeth sunk back into the white mist that made up my face, my body shrinking down as I eyed it from afar. I didn't know what kind of psychopomp Adam had sent after me. It looked like it was related closely to the Egyptians, which fit Adam pretty well. I hadn't ever seen him before, but I'd heard of that piece of wood he claimed was part of Osiris' staff, long ago. A lot of psychopomps felt that was enough to follow his whims. Practitioners, too.

I wasn't one of them.

"Kneel, harbinger!" the raven cried. The blackness began to brush the sides of my storm, and the monster _howled _in defiance as it did so. It wanted to lash out, to shatter, to burn. I held it back. It was fucking _difficult_, balancing the needs and desires of the Other in my soul with my own. Could I wipe out the psychopomp so thoroughly it would be like it never existed at all? Erase it from existence itself? I could. I knew I could. The Docks Monster knew it could as well.

I didn't want to.

I didn't want to destroy something so thoroughly it was like a shadow of itself. But I could _feel _it, deep in my soul, deep inside the coin that I'd trapped the Docks Monster inside of. It wanted to eat. To devour. To destroy so utterly that nothing would be left behind.

"Sit the _fuck _down, psychopomp."

I tore him out of the sky. My storm clashing against his darkness, and my storm _won _\- it battered aside the void and gripped him with tendrils of water and misery. He shrieked as the claws of my storm wrapped around him, but I ignored them as a smile began to grow underneath the mist that made up my face, and he clattered to the ground. His staff rolled away from him, and I walked over to it, my arm extending as nails like knives danced across it.

It was an interesting piece of work. I could feel some sort of magic rushing through it, but I couldn't decipher what it was. I picked it up, the Docks Monster growling in approval as I claimed it, and began to move over to the raven.

"Once," I said, the mist moving aside from my mouth to reveal rows and rows of teeth, each too long to fit inside my jaw. "And if Adam sent you, that's once against him as well. Keep that in mind if I allow you to go back to him. Two more times and what was _his _becomes mine as well."

"Muraqib-"

"Muraqib Rshiqa is far too tied up with their new apprentice to give a _damn _what happens to the Merchants. What are half a hundred necromancers compared to a single law mage, psychopomp?"

The raven's beak clacked shut, and my smile grew, the mist of my head stretching as I unveiled teeth that were far larger than my face. It stretched a hand width beyond the actual length of my head, and there were more and more teeth behind that.

I wanted to destroy it.

I _needed _to break it.

In the reflection of a puddle of water, I saw Rose watching me, her eyes dancing dangerously as she smiled brightly. Her lips mouthed words, and I knew them all too well.

_Do it._

I did.

Power. More power. I jammed my entire arm full of energy so chaotic that it made the wind shriek and the earth howl. My storm grew smaller and smaller as I forced more and more of it into my body, and directed it into my arm. I was going to leave nothing left of Adam's messenger. If I allowed it to go free, it would go free with knowledge of my power, of my allies, of what I could actually do. I couldn't allow that. If information about Blake and Rose got out - about me and Ems - then the wrath of _every _faction would come down on us like the hammer of god.

"My name," I said to it, in a voice that echoed a thousand times, "Is Taylor Annette Thorburn. I claim this victory against the Merchants for the Thorburn Clan. I claim this territory for the Thorburn Clan. I claim this _city _for the Thorburn Clan."

The raven's eyes went wide, and it opened its beak to speak, but I continued onwards.

"When you reform, if you ever do," I spoke to the psychopomp. The lines and lines of teeth grew wider and wider as the storm centered itself in my arm, which crackled with so much energy that it was giving me a body high. "Remind Adam who _truly _rules the Docks. Remind him of his place in this city, and gently inform him that he should be fucking _content _with what he has."

I slammed the storm into the psychopomp, the shock of a hundred thousand souls behind it. The Docks Monster was a dangerous sort of thing, and I had it all inside of my soul. As my appearance reformed, I let it eat, the rumbling of content in my mind echoing through my soul as it did so. The Docks Monster ate, and I ate as well.

"Very good Taylor," Rose said to me from her spot in the puddle. Her eyes were shining with an emotion I couldn't quite place. "You really are a Thorburn, aren't you?"

Even I couldn't stop the flood of warmth through my face as she said _that._

"Even so, Taylor," Rose said as she looked at me from the puddle, her eyes tracking mine. "A harbinger? _Really? _Wouldn't it have been simpler to just use fire?"

"It wasn't my first choice," I said in response, as I moved away from the wreckage of the psychopomp's corpse. "Mom set most of this up."

"A pity," she sighed. "Blake was hoping that she was kinder than the rest of us."

I bit back my retort, clenching my fists so hard they drew blood. Mom _was _kind. She was nobler than me, or Blake, or Rose. It had been my choice in the end, anyways. I needed that kind of power to have any clout in this fucking city. So I'd taken it. It wasn't mom's fault anymore then it was mine.

"What exactly _is _it, though?" Rose had followed me back inside the house, peering at me from the mirror along the entryway. "Nothing like the Others we've seen before."

"It's the monster of the Docks."

"The Docks Monster?"

"Yeah, you're figuring it out already. The manifestation of all the despair, all the meaningless deaths, _everything _that's ever gone wrong in the Docks. A nameless, faceless, entity."

To be a Harbinger was to walk with an Other at your side. Not like a scourge, or a diabolist - they _control _Others, or demons. I can't even pretend to control the Docks Monster. It's powers are linked to me, and I can tap into them, but…

It's strong.

It's way stronger than I am. Stronger than Ems is, too. Even now I can feel it, seeping into the concrete, waiting too patiently. It's worse than a dragon, really - at least they're mindless. The Docks Monster can think. And it knows what it wants.

To devour.

"How interesting!" Rose laughed as she spoke, her eyes lighting up with delight as she followed me back into the drawing room. She walked with an ease that I couldn't understand, seating herself lazily in the armchair in the mirror with a full smile on her face. "I didn't expect to run into someone like you here! I think knowing you would be good for Blake and Evan."

"Good for them?"

"Of course! Don't you think you're alike? All that power, and no _finesse. _All that rage and nothing to hone it on."

She smiled at me, a lovely, beautiful thing that sent shivers down my spine.

"Wouldn't it be _wonderful _to see him use it?"

It was in that moment, as I stared at a mirror with a girl who I'd never met before, that I realized something about the Thorburns. It wasn't that Blake was an idiot, or that Rose was a genius. It was how they _mirrored _each other. How Blake tempered her worst instincts, and how Rose made him braver. Separately they were…

It was like I was looking at half a person, even though she was inside the mirror. Rose Thorburn didn't feel like a complete existence, in the same way _Blake _didn't. What the fuck had they done to themselves? How was this even possible? They were easily _miles _from each other, and yet Rose had a full form, and she was _intelligent. _Vestiges…

Vestiges aren't like this.

Nothing I've ever seen is like this.

I smiled shakily at Rose, and prayed that Ems was okay.

**-o-**

thanks to Luna for dealing with my constant Pact rants again!


	5. Blood 1,5

**Blood 1.5**

* * *

"You fucked me," I said to Ems. She was staring at the sky, pretending not to hear me. "And you _know_ you fucked me, don't you?"

We were going down the elevator with no handrails again. Evan was sitting on Ems' head, giving me a _look _that I was pointedly ignoring. Fucking _incarnations_. Thrown under the bus at the slightest sign of interest.

"It's not that I give a damn about you fucking me over," I mused, scratching my cheek. "It's that you fucked me over for no reason. Mura - for that is what they _insist _I call them - says I have to go up there three times a week, nine times a month, for three years before they'll declare me a full law mage. I am now trapped in a contract with a goddamn _divine being _because you wanted to secure yourself an ally."

Ems didn't say anything. I tapped my foot impatiently as I looked at her, and she continued to pretend I wasn't there, staring at the sky.

"It's really pretty out, isn't it Evan?" She said, her eyes glancing upwards at her head, where my familiar was sitting. "I wish there wasn't some whiny asshole complaining about how I found him the best tutor in the entire city for his needs because now he has to _learn _things."

I wished I could take back every kind thought I had about the girl next to me, because if one thing was clear, then it was this - she was an _enormous _bitch. I raised an eyebrow, to which she stuck out her tongue in response. The elevator continued descending downwards, and the clouds parted to reveal the miserable city below.

My vacation was fucked.

"Well, if you wanted me trapped, pissed, and annoyed, then you've got it!" I said brightly. She gave me an annoyed look in response, and I threw my arm around her shoulder, dragging her closer to me. "That's how you think it works, right? Annoy a practitioner, point them in the direction of your enemies, reap the rewards."

"That's not-"

"Isn't it _nice, _being friends? Isn't it _fucking fantastic_, tricking someone else?"

Nothing I said was a lie, which is why I could say it. Even if it was exaggerated, spirits _loved _exaggeration, while they _despised _lies. We were allies. We were close, physically. It was all about interpretation - how _you _viewed the things you said, and how the spirits viewed _you. _Of course, the worse your karma, the more negative aspects would be attributed to the turns of phrase, but according to _Mura, _my karma was fantastic.

Turns out demon-sealing is a pretty lucrative process. As is swearing to the spirits to do it to any demon you see. I pulled my implement out of my pocket with my free hand, flipping through the pages as I dragged Ems close to look at it. Evan flew off her head, pecking me on my forehead.

"Blake, you need to _calm down._"

I closed my eyes, and took a breath. Evan was right - I could feel Conquest's corruption drowning my thoughts, the sparks of red that flickering through my mind slowly trying to whip themselves into an inferno. They told me to dominate. To conquer. To control. Brockton Bay was a city without a lord, so why couldn't _I _do it? What made Taylor deserving, over me? I was already the Lord of Toronto. I could be the lord of two cities - stronger than anyone else and too powerful to control.

I freed myself of the thoughts, feeling the tinge of red exit my mind like a whisper, sinking back into the deeper recesses of my mind with frustration as I let it go, the rage leaving me feeling empty.

"Sorry," I said to the girl next to me, letting her go. She gave me a withering glare, and I scratched my cheek, feeling the nails clawing against the itchiness of new hairs on my chin. "I got carried away."

"It's fine."

"No," I shook my head in response. Looking away from her, I stared at a city in disarray. I could feel the despair that sunk into every crevice of Brockton Bay, the emptiness that covered it like a blanket. "It isn't."

She didn't reply to me as the elevator continued descending. We stood in silence - not companionable, not comfortable - but that sort of pure, blistering silence that echoes into the void. I didn't know what to do, but I wanted to make it up to her. It was fucked up, using Conquest dominate others. I had tried to keep it under control, but I could feel more and more of me slipping away with every second that I had it in my mind. Conquest was dangerous as hell, and I didn't know how to deal with it.

"...If you knew what you were doing," the girl said the phrase slowly, like she was tasting the words on her tongue. Her red hair floated gently as the elevator came to a halt, and she stepped off of it without looking at me. "You'd be fucking terrifying."

I blinked when she said it, looking at Evan with a raised eyebrow. He fluttered in the air, blinking his eyes at me. Neither of us had any idea what Ems meant by that.

"Ems!" Evan flapped quickly after her, and I followed languidly, taking slow steps back onto the concrete. "Where are we going now?"

"We've only hit one of four," the girl said bluntly. Her face was hardening as she moved, brisk long strides that made me speed up to catch up to the two. "There are still three more we have to speak to."

"What does that even _mean?_" I asked her, and she rolled her eyes. I pressed it anyways. "One of four? Why are you going around speaking to everyone in the first place?"

"Because we don't _have _a Lord, Blake. We don't have a council of sycophants behind them. Brockton has five practitioners who would control the entire city. One of them already knows about Taylor, but the other three have been ignoring her."

Ems looked at me, and the fire in her eyes made me shiver as she smiled dangerously.

"If you want to make a play, you have to announce it if you want it to mean anything, right? We have _you. _We have the name. It's time to move."

She walked away briskly, and I followed her closely. I could see her shoulders shaking, even as she tried to put on a brave face.

"So let's go talk to a dragon."

Ems refused to respond to me after she said that, even when I needled her. I let the conversation die then, turning to look at Evan instead. My familiar was sitting on the Hyena's handle, peering around at everything around us. I slowed down my pace, letting Ems move a bit further ahead, before jerking my head towards her.

"What do you think?"

"Of Ems?" Evan asked me with wide eyes. He blinked, peering at her in the little distance away from us. "Not much, Blake. She's really dedicated to her friend."

Not her friend. Her _contractor_. Whatever the fuck Taylor had done to Ems was some intensive work, and I doubted that either of them would answer any of my questions if I asked them. I was relying on Rose for that - she was better at needling things out of people than

"But if you're asking me if she's good people…" The bird on my shoulder rustled his feathers, tapping his beak against my cheek. "Then I think _you _already know the answer to that, Blake. You just don't want to consider it."

I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth with a nod. Evan wasn't wrong, here. Ems hadn't steered me _wrong_, she'd just done what every other practitioner I met had done. All of them trafficked in lies and deceit to use for their advantage. Ems wasn't any better than Rose, or grandmother, or the Behaims. She was exactly the same.

Fucking _magicians._

Speeding up to catch up to her, our surroundings gave way from the city center to neon lights and flashing signs. Foreign languages pounded out sayings that I couldn't read above awnings that smelled of salt. The quiet murmur of noise that was in all cities grew louder and louder, becoming a cacophony of sights and sounds that I hadn't seen before. I froze for a moment, before hearing the impatient tapping of a foot. Looking over, Ems was glaring at me with her arms crossed.

"You ready? Good. He's over there."

She jerked her head towards an awning that advertised tattoos. The billboard was of a woman, her kimono slipping off her back, the hint of a dragon's head revealed underneath it. It had a sign in a language I couldn't read, with square characters and thick, blocky lines. Ems and I walked forward, and she tapped on the door. When it opened, I could _feel _the threshold this place had built, and an intense heat that poured out of the door. Ems stood tall, but I could see the sweat already lining her brow. It was like standing at the edge of a volcano, and a lithe girl with long black hair and a painted face stared out of the door, looking at us with a smile.

"Please," she said in a quiet voice. Her head was already dipping into a bow as she moved away from the entrance, allowing us through. "The Dragon will see you. But do not interrupt the ceremony."

We entered the door, and it shut behind us with a quiet clacking sound. The floor before us was cement, and the woman gestured to us to remove our shoes. Ems did it swiftly, leaning down and waving her hand. Her laces undid themselves, and the woman with a painted face let out a murmur of approval. She then looked at me with an arched eyebrow.

I bent down and untied my shoes.

Placing them into the rack, the instant I moved my feet off the cement onto the wood, the searing heat quieted to a murmur. A drop of sweat ran down my neck as we were led past a garden, a single leafless tree surrounded by a field of white lilies. Our feet crinkled over them as we walked across them, my toes sinking into the soft earth beneath the flowers. The heat _rose, _higher and higher as we moved deeper into the complex, the smooth ground giving way to rough sand, the wooden panels turning slowly into slabs of stone.

I wiped the sweat off my face glancing at Ems. She looked perfectly fine, but if I squinted, the lines of her face were… _warped, _I guess. Like it was a disguise held together by a thimble made of stars. She blinked as I looked at her, and I could see a shining light behind a black star in her eyes. It was otherworldly, and a veil of red began to coat my vision as I looked at her, my hand reaching for her throat-

"_Blake!_"

Evan's shriek dragged me out of it, and I dropped my hand to my side. I didn't look at Ems for a bit after that.

After five minutes, we stopped in front of a red door. The handles were made of what looked like gold, a dragon's head with an open mouth on top of both. The woman with a painted face smiled gently at us, bowing slightly, before she slid them open.

"Announcing," she said as she stepped quietly into the room. "The Thorburn Heir and his familiar, in addition to Ems."

I took a step inside, and let out a hiss of breath at the sight.

A man, easily a foot taller than I was, stood facing the entrance from across a round stone table. A girl was on top of it; a girl with a face eerily similar to the one of the women on the shop's signage. She gave us a small smile, before she laid down onto the table, her face pointing towards the side.

"What is it you desire, o Master of mine?" she asked, in a voice that echoed throughout the room, like a deep chill. Even in the heat, I could feel the cold that seeped through her. "To see once more?"

The man nodded, not saying a word.

The woman's smile grew wider, and she held up a knife that she had hidden in her sleeves. With it over her wrist, she began to _push_, but the blood coming out wasn't the color of blood - it came out in blues and indigos, reds and greens, a thousand colors that ran up her arm like a stream, as she switched hands, and slit her other wrist wide. Pure black poured out of it like a fountain, entirely covering her arm in that inky substance, as it too raced upwards, coating every inch of skin that we could see.

Her body was covered in ink, as she smiled wide the entire time. I could see the pain in her eyes, and it made me _flinch_. What kind of man could control such a fanatic? How did he come in contact with her in the first place? Suddenly, her eyes grew _enormous_, and the ink soaked into them as well, devouring her pupil in a sea of color.

And then, it ended.

The colors receded, crawling backwards, and the chill in the air lightened. The man stepped forward, gently opening the woman's kimono to reveal her back as she lay panting heavily, and examined it. Upon it, was an elegant tattoo - thick black lines revealing a shining mirror inside of them. But as I watched, the mirror cracked, once, then twice, until it shattered into a thousand pieces. The man watched silently before he let out a grunt, pulling up the woman's kimono.

"What's it mean?" Evan asked quietly. I shot him a look, but his innocent voice still rang through the chamber. "That… that drawing?"

"Ill fate," the man said in response. His voice was rough and low, like rocks churning. But there was a fire in it, a long and slumbering sort of burning that made me look closer at him. "Nothing more."

He was tall and broad - more fit to be a pro wrestler than a gangster. Wearing a tight black tank top, I could tell he was built like a brick _wall _\- muscle on muscle at every part of his body. His pants were loose jeans, and a pair of well-worn loafers were on his feet. The presence he had was _staggering_, and that cackle in the back of my mind started to grow louder and louder, as Conquest came out to play.

He looked at me, and Conquest looked back.

I could feel the struggle for dominance start to build, the anger and desire to tear away his _arrogance_ to stand before us like that, and I squeezed my eyes shut. My skull pounded in rage as I did, but I ran from it - deeper into my mind where the red couldn't find me. Evan shone like the sun inside my head, and I ran to where he was, and opened my eyes again. Conquest had hidden once more, not willing to fight when I wasn't going to bend to its desires.

"Powerful spirit," the man said, sitting down. "_Two _powerful spirits. What business do you have with Lung?"

Ems let out a slow hiss of breath, looking at me with wide eyes. She was shaking, and her face was like a lamp, _literally _glowing before me. I put a hand on her, and she was _hot _to the touch. I kept it there, looking in her eyes. She wrenched my arm away, and took a deep breath. The light faded from her skin, and her body repaired itself. The cracks that had been forming in her skin slid together like plates, and she looked at Lung.

"Taylor Annette Thorburn," she began, bowing to the man. He didn't react to the name, but his eyes glanced at me with newfound interest. "Is stating her claim. She cares not for the Docks. Not for the Boardwalk. Not for _parts _of the city, but for the _whole. _She states her claim to you, Lung, and will state it for any who care to ask. To Coil, to the Merchant of Death, or to any others."

Lung's eyes never moved off of me as Ems spoke, and I felt a bead of sweat run down the side of my face. Lung was not like Belhaim, or like Conquest - there was power in _spades _to back up his presence. Every time he moved it was planned, every time he spoke it was purposeful. Lung didn't take wasteful actions. So… _why the fuck was he still looking at me?_

"And who are you?"

"Blake."

"Blake what?"

"Blake Thorburn," I said, clenching my hands. Evan tapped my cheek with his beak, but I ignored him. "The heir."

"Ah, I'd heard that the scion of the Thorburn clan was here," he replied with a slight nod. "What business do you have?"

"Family business."

His eyes flashed as I spoke, and he looked at me closer, leaning forward. His hand roughly rubbed across his jaw, catching on the stubble above his lip. I was getting more uncomfortable by the second, scratching at my shoulder absentmindedly.

"I see," he said finally, leaning back in his chair. "Very well. I accept your partner's challenge, spirit. But you, heir… I'd like to try myself. A test of strength, at another time."

I nodded hesitantly in agreement, and could see Ems hide a shriek of victory inside of a stern face. Her eyes danced with light when I looked at her, and she jerked her towards Lung, who I moved my eyes on without missing a beat.

"Sure. Any time."

The words came out of my mouth as fast as possible. I jerkily extended my hand to grasp his, and he smiled as he stood up, wrapping his enormous palm around mine. We shook hands, and his grin remained.

"Then we have an agreement. You have others you must attend to, no? Like your master."

Ems looked worriedly at Lung, whose eyes glinted.

"Why, it seems as if she's ready to start a war on her own."

The girl let out a curse, and grabbed my hand. We bowed swiftly to Lung, and moved even quicker through the building. Stone gave way to wood, to earth, to stone once more, as Ems waited impatiently for me to grab my shoes, before already moving towards the door. I put them on in a scramble, getting up to follow her as Evan flew on ahead with the shorter girl.

"Woah! Slow down a little!" I shouted as I jogged up to her. "Taylor can't have done anything _too _big. Hasn't she been planning this for a bit?"

"She's _impulsive,_" Ems snapped back, frowning. "She won't realize the consequences until it's already done. Like with the fucking _augur. _Like with the _monster. _Like with _Loy-_"

She cut herself off with a click of the tongue, turning away from me.

"Hey," I said to her slowly, trying on a smile. "Relax. I'm sure it won't be anything too big. She's not stupid, Ems."

"Ahem… are you the Thorburn Heir?"

"Eh? Ah, yeah."

I glanced upwards from Ems, and I was looking at a man. He was pale-skinned and scrawny, more like a goblin then a man - with thin hair and large lidded eyes. Underneath his eyes were piles of dark circles, like he hadn't slept in _months. _He was scratching his stomach with skinny arms that didn't match his protruding stomach. He let out a loud yawn as he glanced at a piece of paper rubbing his eyes.

"Ah… Adam says you gotta come with me 'less you wanna see your loved ones eaten alive."

Seven _choirs, _Taylor.

"Nothing too bad, Blake?" Ems muttered, her hands glittering with light as she looked at the man in disgust. "Guess you don't know her like _I _do."

Yeah, I was definitely out of my depth when it came to figuring out teenage girls with too much power at their fingertips.

It's been a bit! I'd like to thank Luna again for dealing with my constant rants about Pact, as well as dealing with my rampant inability to stay on topic for longer then five minutes. And my "kufufu, you thought you caught me in a plothole, but actually I'm panicking and figuring it out as we speak!" shenanigans.

* * *

This will continue onwards! I love Pact! I hope you love it as well! If you like Branch, you'll also probably like Tres, which has just been completed! Go check it out if you're into this weird world in any capacity!

Tune in next time I remember to write, which'll probably be much sooner because I'm no longer on holidays and trapped without good internet. Unless...?


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